Children Act 1989

Lord Roberts of Llandudno: To ask Her Majesty's Government what proportion of litigants in private law proceedings held under the Children Act 1989 were litigants in person; and, of those, how many did not have the support of a McKenzie friend.

Lord McNally: The Ministry of Justice holds information on whether or not applicants and respondents in private law cases in England and Wales were recorded on court administrative systems as having a legal representative. The proportions of litigants in private law cases brought from 2006 to 2010 under the Children Act 1989 who did not have a recorded representative are set out in table 1. It should be noted that parties without a recorded representative are not necessarily litigants in person.
	Figures are only given for the High Court and the county courts as information is not available for all family proceedings courts (FPCs). However, in 2010 only about 17 per cent of children involved in private law applications had their case dealt with at an FPC.
	
		
			 Table 1-Proportions of Unrepresented Litigants in Children Act (Private Law) Cases in the County Court or High Court in England and Wales 
			 Year Proportion of Applicants Unrepresented Proportion of Respondents Unrepresented Proportion of All Litigants Unrepresented 
			 2006 19.9% 47.0% 33.8% 
			 2007 21.2% 49.3% 35.7% 
			 2008 20.8% 50.0% 35.9% 
			 2009 19.9% 51.0% 35.9% 
			 2010 20.1% 49.5% 35.2% 
		
	
	Source: HMCTS FamilyMan system
	Notes:
	1 Unrepresented refers to parties that had no recorded representative.
	2 Applicants refers to the party or parties trying to get an order made. Respondents refers to the party, or parties, who are responding to the application and raising any objections.
	3 The proportions refer to the applicants or respondents in Children Act (Private Law) cases where an application was made in the relevant calendar year. Where there were application events in two calendar years each applicant and respondent in the case will be counted once in each year.
	4 Children Act (Private Law) applications include private law cases where the following order types were applied for Section 8 orders (contact, residence, prohibited steps specific issue) and parental responsibility orders. Schedule 1 financial orders and special guardianship orders.
	5 Figures exclude cases heard at Family Proceedings Courts (FPCs). This is because during the period considered not all FPCs were using FamilyMan Those FPCs not using FamilyMan provided aggregate returns that did not include information on representation. Therefore information for FPCs would be incomplete.
	Information on parties in family cases who did not have the support of a McKenzie friend is not recorded centrally. It is only recorded on case files held by the courts, and the information requested could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Children Act 1989

Lord Roberts of Llandudno: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many of those who (a) took their own lives, and (b) killed another person to whom they were related, in each of the past 10 years were, or had been, a party to proceedings under the Children Act 1989.

Lord McNally: The Government do not collect these statistics.

Cornwall: Stannary Law

Lord Laird: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord McNally on 22 June (WA 303), when stannary law was last raised in a claim or other application in a county court.

Lord McNally: The last stannary law applications were issued in Cornwall in 2009 and since 1990 there have only been six cases where stannary law was raised.

House of Lords Reform Bill [HL]

Lord Mawhinney: To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the latest date by which a House of Lords Reform Bill would have to receive Royal Assent in order for sufficient time to be available for all necessary preparations to be made ahead of the May 2015 election.

Lord Strathclyde: The Government published a White Paper and draft Bill on House of Lords reform on 17 May, which are subject to pre-legislative scrutiny by a Joint Committee of both Houses. The Government have proposed the use of the single transferable vote system, but recognise that an argument can be made for a different type of proportional system.
	We will work with the Electoral Commission and electoral administrators on the detail of implementation as part of that debate, but a detailed assessment of the necessary preparations require more certainty as to the system of proportional representation that is to be used.

House of Lords Reform Bill [HL]

Lord Avebury: To ask Her Majesty's Government, in the light of the draft House of Lords Reform Bill (Cm 8077), which states provide for ex officio representation of clerics in their legislatures.

Lord Strathclyde: The House of Lords is the only legislature that includes ex officio representation of clerics.